Newfoundland Tree Ring Chronology for Paleoclimate Reconstruction

NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology archives a tree ring dataset from Mountain Lake, Newfoundland, Canada. The chronology covers 279 years, from 241 to -38 calendar years before present. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) published this study in 1988.

Use Cases

• Calibrate climate models by correlating tree ring width measurements with historical temperature and precipitation records.
• Reconstruct past climate anomalies for the Newfoundland region using the annual-resolution chronology spanning 279 years.
• Analyze growth patterns and extreme events within the time-series data to identify periods of environmental stress.
• Validate other proxy records by comparing the ITRDB CANA050 chronology with ice core or sediment data from similar timeframes.

Strengths

• Chronology spans a defined 279-year period from 241 to -38 BP.
• Data is part of the authoritative International Tree-Ring Data Bank (ITRDB) and NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology archive.
• Provides annual-resolution proxy data for climate reconstruction.

Limitations

• Temporal coverage is limited to a specific 279-year window, not continuous to present day.
• Data is geographically focused on a single site (Mountain Lake, Newfoundland), limiting regional generalization.
• The dataset was last updated in 1988, indicating potential staleness in metadata or collection methods.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), World Data Service for Paleoclimatology.

Collection Method

Tree ring core sampling and dendrochronological analysis.

Time Range

241 to -38 calendar years before present (BP).

Freshness

Last updated in 1988; static historical archive.

Geography

Mountain Lake, Newfoundland, Canada.